The democrats and the liberal puppets in the media are simply lost when it comes to fighting a war. They scramble around for slogans, caught in a quagmire of their own making. A classic example of this core problem on the left is this ridiculous piece in US News & World Report which tries to make the war out to be nothing more than message management (like al Qaeda is going to surrender the field depending in which words we use to describe him):

Whatever the legislative gambits surrounding the very difficult substantive issue of how to deal with Iraq, there is a much wider PR battle being waged in the media and in Washington’s backrooms as the parties jockey for political advantage. It’s a battle of rhetoric and posturing, words and phrases. And one that will last through to the 2008 presidential election.

Folks, Americans hold dear a few things called ‘values’. They want to live free and unencumbered by government bureaocrats with too much free time on their hands trying to play God. They want to raise their family the way they think best, not the local school board’s vision of family. And they want this great country to be protected from future 9-11s, even if that means going on the attack before we are attacked. And on the last item, we would prefer not to have to go on a massive bloodbath in the Middle East to convince the people there not to attack us again. But if the choice is ME carnage or more attacks here, then I doubt you are going to get a lot of Americans saying ‘we are for more attacks here’. PR campaigns cannot change basic values. They can sometimes leverage them, but they cannot change them.

This is not about words and slogans, it is about results. Afghanistan is a huge success. Imperfect and with the Taliban and al Qaeda fighting back (mostly thanks to the hope provided by the power obsessed left in this country who promise the US will still surrender and run home), but still a huge success. It is a democracy and a vast majority of the people there support it. Iraq could be and indications are the new tactics may be able to break the downward spiral and lift that country back on a path to democracy and long term alliance to the US. In fact, what has the left and the EU all worried is that America will see Iraq as a stronger, more important ally than France. And if Iraq does rise up to anchor the ME that would be actual result.

Empty rhetoric is as useful as a used car salesman’s pitch – because they are the same thing. Words wrapped around nothing trying to create a fake image of something. The Dems are in the political quagmire because they made a promise to America they now clearly cannot and will never be able to meet. They promised to change things in Iraq. America never said lose the war. And since the Dems left the details unsaid Americans expected the dems to accelerate winning the war (at least to the point where we were not worse off than now). And that is the quagmire or box the left is in.

To leave Iraq now would obviously increase the threat against this country and our families living here. To leave al Qaeda to plunder Iraq’s oil and educated population to create a world wide Jihad beyond what the Nazis ever accomplished is not an option you can paper over with slogans like ‘redeployment’. With Iraq as their base of operations al Qaeda would send swarms of suicide bombers into Europe and the Americas. China might broker a deal and finally begin her march of conquest as world’s delicate balance of checks is totally knocked down. The results of surrendering Iraq are simply longer, bloodier, more expansive battlefronts – more Iraqs to deal with.

The country wants results. Bush is starting to get results. And all those who went weak-kneed will be remembered as the ones who wet their pants in the face of some hard conditions and tried to run home. As things are going now, the Dems should be able to hold their first big votes on surrendering Iraq just as Bush’s new tactics are making serious headway in pushing Iraq on the path to a success. And the dems will have had their little Vietnam – only they will be the ones who lost everything and will be choppering out of DC.